When it comes to Twitter applications (perenially popular, it seems), Symbian and S60 have no shortage of choice. Guest author David Gilson has done a mass review of all the Twitter applications he could find for S60, and presents us with a detailed feature comparison, along with a number of recommendations.
In All About Symbian Insight 102 (AAS Podcast 166), the team start with news of Sony Ericsson's Vivaz and its continuous focus HD video capture capabilities. We move on to an in-depth discussion of Nokia's Ovi Maps announcement last week. The final item in this weeks podcast is a quick mention for the new beta version of Ovi Suite. You can listen to AAS Insight 102 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Everyone has been wondering why Ovi Maps hasn't been offered, for convenience, through the Ovi Store client - and, with the release of the new all-free, official v3.3, that's exactly what Nokia has done, indicating a high degree of confidence on its part. Great to see it heading up the store, anyway, and now merely a download away. And a side note for those for whom this doesn't appear - many other S60 3rd Ed FP2 phones will work fine with Maps 3.3 - just grab the closest version via your desktop and side-load it.
Last year, David Gilson compared Google Maps and Ovi Maps, controversially finding that Google Maps (for Mobile) had the edge. However, Nokia has now announced that voice guided road navigation for Ovi Maps no longer requires a subscription fee and is available to all. Read on to see how this game-changing move effects the battle of the maps! (Note that this article is a rewrite and does contain some of the original text.)
For anyone who's digging the new Nokia Ovi Suite all-in-one system and who wants to both to live on the bleeding edge and have a say in how Ovi Suite develops, note that v2.1 has been opened up to public beta testing. There are some links and change notes below to help you make up your mind...(!)
Ewan takes a sideways look at the addition of Lifecasting to Ovi Maps this morning - what implications are there for bringing this social element into a mapping and navigation product? And what challenges remain in this area for Nokia? How will this release change the world? Read on in his Lifecasting editorial.
Nokia today announced that it is releasing a new version of Ovi Maps with free walk (pedestrian) and driving (car) turn-by-turn, voice guided navigation functionality. Ovi Maps has global coverage, with 74 countries covered by its navigation services. Maps for all regions will be available, for free, for loading over the air or pre-loading via a desktop computer. Traffic information and city guides, from Lonely Planet and Michelin, will also be made available at no extra cost. There's an initial set of devices, in terms of availability, with more compatible devices to follow. See below.
This is an industry-shifting move; Nokia is essentially changing the economics of the consumer GPS navigation market overnight. It will give its phones a significant differentiator on shop shelves and has long term strategic implications for the future of location services. Read on for further details and analysis.
Two cracking posts on the Symbian blog today about application development and the story behind the applications. Mobbler, the music tracking web service; and Mobilyze, and in-development app to help patients undergoing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Escarpod, the third party Open Source podcast gatherer and player, originally written for UIQ and available for S60 in beta form for a while, is now the source of a Contribution Proposal to the main Symbian Foundation code base. Effectively, this means that future Symbian devices should have a podcast client, in the wake of Nokia choosing not to contribute their own proprietary Podcasting application. Read on for links and more information.
In All About Symbian Insight 101 (AAS Podcast 165), we round up the weeks news including updates to Ovi Suite, Samsung's 32 GB microSD card announcement, firmware updates for the 5800, N86, E72 and E75 and the release of Betalab's Gig Finder. We also discuss the UI concept proposal from Nokia for Symbian^4, before Ewan gives us some concluding thoughts on the X6. You can listen to AAS Insight 101 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Today Symbian made available, via its developer website, a number of documents relating to the Orbit and Direct UI proposals that make up a major part of the changes in Symbian^4. These proposals offer a glimpse of what the Symbian^4 UI may look like and explain some of the key UI layout and design changes. Symbian are looking for the community's feedback, comments and questions about the proposals. Read on for more details and illustrations.
As with the Evernote widget yesterday, I think the time has come to start recommending that you consider removing Nokia PC Suite and consider installing Ovi Suite, provided you have a reasonably recent PC. The latter has just been updated to v2.0.2.42 (according to NokNok) and its resource requirements have been steadily coming down from the stratospherics of the early betas. Comments welcome if you're feeling brave - has Ovi Suite come of age now?
A couple of interesting links of interest from the last 24 hours: Samsung has announced the world's first 32GB microSD card, based on 30nm technology (i.e. 0.00000003 metres!), to be in production from next month. Staggering miniaturisation, if you ask me. In other news, Nokia has released a Windows 7-compatible (beta) version of its Nokia Software Update tool, eliminating the need to mess around running the tool in a 'compatibility' mode. About time.
I want to take a little break away from the major Nokia X6 review I'm doing just now to directly address one of the issues that I'm seeing in the comments both of the X6 review and in other products that are reviewed both here on AAS and on other tech sites: the use of third party software to compensate for a manufacturer's omissions.
S60 has long been without any form of Wikipedia application besides the mobile web site. There are now two applications in early development, but do either of them significantly add to the mobile web site experience? David Gilson has been comparing all three and answers that question in this feature.
